How to cheat at the lottery
Alistair Kelman
A.Kelman@telepathic.com
Wed, 18 Aug 1999 8:06 +0100 (BST)
> > Brooks ("The Mythical Man-Month", ISBN 0-201-83595-9) points out
> > how design is best done by a small number of people, programming by
> > a larger team
>
> He made a very powerful argument that `coding is hard to parallelise'.
> OK, but so what? Coding makes up maybe 10% of the effort in a large
> software project. Requirements engineering is maybe 30% and testing/
> maintenance a massive 60%.
Eric Raymond's statement "Given enough eyeballs all bugs are shallow" is
the new mantra.
Back in February I published a paper "Reliable Software and the Year 2000"
see http://www.law.warwick.ac.uk/jilt/99-1/kelman.html
In it I wrote:
...
But, as professional litigators, in considering the Year 2000 situation we
must also be aware that during the 1990s one of the greatest dogmas of
computer science has been overturned. Until recently it was safe to say
that because you could never prove that a particular piece of software was
error free it was impossible to create a system which was completely
reliable unless you adopted military style code review procedures. The
growth of the Open Source Software movement and the development of Linux
has proved this to be wrong: reliable software can come into being through
an entirely different route. And the consequences for the established
software industry are serious.
Many lay people will find the explanation of Open Source Software
development and its implications difficult concepts to grasp at first. So
to introduced the consequences I have composed a Millennium Fable :
A Millennium Fable
Once upon a time there was a man who built a Magic System. It wasn't
really a Magic System but it did wonderful things and to the ordinary
people the things it could do appeared to be Magical. The man never
allowed anyone to see inside the System but kept its contents secret. He
also charged people a lot of money for use of his Magic System.
Over several years the man sold the use of his System to many many people
and made lots and lots of money. The people started using his Magic System
for lots and lots of things and built their lives around it. The Magic
System ran their homes, their offices, their hospitals, their schools,
their nuclear power plants. Society and modern civilisation came to
depend upon the Magic System and its availability.
The man knew all this. And the man knew that his Magic System was not
perfect and that it could fail and cause damage in unexpected ways. So he
protected himself by making a statement on his Magic System "Hear Ye, Hear
Ye - If you choose to use my Magic System for anything all risks in it
failing belong to you and not to me. " The man believed that if damage
occurred the courts would say that his statement was reasonable and would
absolve him from liability because the Magic System was very complicated
and the man, rich though he was, could never test his Magic System to such
an extent that all the possible faults in it were eliminated since such an
activity would take several human lifetimes. The benefits of the Magic
System were such that society at large would have to bear the costs of
failure of the Magic System. Or so the man thought.
Then one day another man built a different system, a Living System. This
Living System was even more complicated than the Magic System. But the
man, proud of what he had done, showed anyone and everyone how his Living
System worked and did not charge them lots of money to use his Living
System. Within a short time millions of people had looked inside his
Living System. And some of them saw faults and errors. But in gratitude to
the man who had given them the Living System they told him about the
faults and errors and provided repairs and corrections free of charge. The
Living System got stronger and stronger and more reliable. More and more
people started using it instead of the Magic System.
At long last there came the Day of Reckoning when both the Living System
and the Magic System were tested to destruction. On the Day of Reckoning
many people with Magic Systems found that they did not work properly. The
man who licensed the Magic System was inundated with requests for help and
support. The people could not help themselves regarding the operation of
the Magic System since the man had kept everything in it secret. And weeks
and months went by as the man sought to supply solutions to people who had
depended upon the failing Magic System. Many people died, businesses which
depended upon the Magic System went bankrupt. And those that had been hurt
but survived decided to sue the man who owned the Magic System.
On the Day of Reckoning the Living System was also tested to destruction.
But here the fact that everybody knew what was inside the Living System
meant that everyone was able to help each other. Failings were quickly
spotted and fixed by the army of helpers who worked on the Living System,
supporting and helping each other. The Living System survived and was
made stronger and better.
Some time later the man who produced the Magic System found himself in the
courtroom facing thousands of injured people. He told the judge "It is
not my fault all these people got hurt. Even if I had worked night and day
to test and fix all the errors and faults in the Magic System there would
still have been faults in it. It is reasonable for me to rely upon my
'Hear Ye' statement as absolving me from liability. Society has benefited
by having my Magic System, faults and all, and I demand the protection of
the court." But the judge said "Ah, but you did not do everything. You
kept the contents of your Magic System secret so that people could not
look inside it and fix your errors. Although you and your friends alone
could not have fixed all the faults in your Magic System had you opened
your Magic System out to everyone they would have come in, seen how it
worked and would have fixed all your faults as they did with the Living
System. So you did not act reasonably and you are not entitled to rely
upon your 'Hear Ye' statement. You must compensate each and every person
who has been harmed by your Magic System."
And the man who had the Magic System wailed and gnashed but was ordered to
hand over all his money to the damaged people.
Moral: When comparing Possessions and Knowledge remember - you have to
look after Possessions; Knowledge looks after you
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The paper then explains to lawyers the consequences of Open Source based
around Eric's paper.
I really want to turn the fable into a full size nursery poster with lots
of little penguins hopping around it - any publishers on this list ?
Alistair Kelman
Visiting Research Fellow
LSE Computer Security Research Centre
Room S216, St Clements Building
The London School of Economics
Houghton Street,
London WC2A 2AE
0208 202 5675
mailto:A.Kelman@lse.ac.uk
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